Sorry, can't do that...

The email reveals Feehan lobbying commission staffers against proposals for a new ePrivacy Regulation – which was meant to come into force with GDPR but has been stuck in negotiations – saying it could “mean the end of the online advertising model.”

The mind boggles... Their opinion seems to translate to:

"Ma'am, get out of the vehicle and place your hands on the roof".

"Sorry officer, can't do that."

"..."

"I know this might be difficult for you, but let me take you through it slowly, maybe you then understand. You know officer, the fact of the matter is, this is a high performance car. And on top of that, I just like driving fast. So for me it's technically, and might I add, genetically impossible to drive slower.. Hence, your law just can't, and doesn't apply to me. So sorry officer, no hands on the roof for you today."

"..."

"Maybe you can adapt your law so it will be more convenient for us both? Oh, and while you do that, removing those distracting speed limit signs might be a good idea? It's not that I'm not trying to work with you".

Surprising...

Some systems pretrained on ImageNet might not perform so well in other domains, like facial recognition or medical imaging.

I must admit, that kind of surprises me. Having spent many hours behind a microscope, doing pathology screening, and lived through the emergence of image analysis software, I thought I remembered parameters like roundness, circumference and stuff. Later, thought I recognised the same principles on radiological images. So are we saying here that image analysis software does nothing at all with shape?

BTW, the thing that is REALLY worrying is the graph with the normal, clear pic of the cat; only 99% of humans recognised that? That must have been a real brutal night at the pub then...

Re: So predictable !

Lame. They don't sell your information.

Hummm, so you mean that they call Google the Chocolate Factory because they really make all their money with chocolate? Do they have with nuts?

Oh Ac, and if this is winding down to a "freetard" and "buy for" discussion; if you pay for something, it becomes property, for you to do with what you want. But I understand you are a "lease-subscription-until-you-die-unless -we-get-bored-of-you-and-pull-your-plug-instead-tard"?

I notice I get more and more fed up by people/ companies telling me what is best for me. Now, for me personally, I'm arrogant enough to make it water of a ducks back. But I already fear the numerous questions "why do I keep seeing those ads for fluffy piggy slippers? Can you make it like it was before?"

Hope this works out for Gorhill though. His code is really, really good...

It never stops to amaze, these template, 1st marketing lesson replies. And since we're talking air travel and, connected to that, on line payments and stuff, it's infuriating to see confirmed once again that this all is clearly a one way street.

Especially when you consider the discrepancy between how this is regarded/ handled, and the traveller:

--- taking of all his/ her clothing before checkin "for your own security"

--- getting in a machine scanning him/ her down to the pubs "to increase safety"

--- doing the required (think banking/ payments) software updates on his/ her devices because else "they are not on the latest safety standards", hence outside liability.

Here, have a cheese burger...

Not true as this article shows. But, just for the fun of it, why don't you run an Open VPN and see how your DNS leaks. And then hop over to GitHub and see how Zee Poohtz writes its all your perception which is wrong...

Re: Other solution

"Washington Post isn't alone"

I agree. And contrary to the Washington Post, it also happens in some countries wide scale within the EU. Despite all those mentions of the "huge fines under GDPR".

For example, try to access one of the major Dutch news outlets (e.g. classical newspapers Volkskrant, NRC, Algemeen Dagblad, Trouw, Parool, or regional ones like de Gelderlander), and you'll be confronted with a cookie wall immediately. It will offer users to choice to accept cookies, 3rd party sell off, and tracking, or to go and get your content elsewhere. Now, that doesn't sound very GDPR. Or impressed by GDPR enforcement and consequences. I'll bet a beer here that more than 90% of the major Dutch news outlets do this. So indeed, WP is certainly not unique, and a lot can be done in our own backyard.

Re: What about Windows 10 that Office is sitting on?

The report (the pdf) itself gives some "amusing" insight...

Page 12 of 91...

Technical limitations

"The technical lab was unable to inspect the contents of the outgoing data stream. As an essential security measure, Microsoft encodes the outgoing traffic to its own servers. Microsoft did not provide tools to the lab to decode the outgoing data stream."

How surprising...

"It was not (yet) possible to view the contents of the traffic in another way, because Microsoft had not yet developed a tool to be able to view the diagnostic data in a way similar to the Data Viewer Tool provided for the Windows 10 telemetry data."

Re: We already have the solution

@ veti. Are sure that is what Oh Homer meant? As I read it, he is absolutely spot on. Even if you do the odd job for family and friends, you will know that they will take 3 days to come up with a password (after asking you 10 times whether a password is really necessary). They will go on a drinking spree when Microsoft decided to change their GUI. And buy a new Apple Phone because it comes with new exciting emojis. And that if you've spent some time in biz you know that this is the perfect "target audience" presenting an perfect "opportunity" to "maximise ROI"...

Re: .com is for international companies

Indeed.

So think about this; if .com is for international companies, why is an US institute running it? Why is US government defining the rules about it? Seems about time that "the internet" becomes an international, in stead of an US "sure we graciously allow you to use it, but always remember it's actually ours" resource. So no better place to start, to hand this whole "registration" stuff into international hands. And no, don't ask me to define international. It's weekend, just read this before going out to the pub, so can not be bothered with this now...

Click to (de)install...

I think some here miss the point. Want to use Google flavoured Android? You're welcome. Want to use Google services? Sure you can! But... Don't need a Google media player so let's free up the space by removing it completely? Hummm... Want to remove Google Chrome completely in favour for something else (even if it's crap)? Erm... Remove Google Maps/ localisation completely? Right..? Want to adjust those (bundled) settings you found on page 74532729? ...

Thing is that Google is trying to dictate the conditions with a "swallow or suffocate" approach. Which is logical because that benefits them, and, after all, they're a company and not Mother Theresa, so that's their objective.

However, as with the MS case in the past, it shouldn't focus on what can be used or what is (not) included. It should focus on user free choice and independence. So for example, what can be removed completely, if this is the users free unfettered choice, without any limitations or overreaching consequences. Or as old timers used to say: "I own my (select as desired) OS/ device/ data/...".

And that's why Google is cunning, and (again) takes that free decisive power away with their "free slimmed down", and "the full paid version" strategy. With all the "benefits" that they say come with it. Nothing new or extraordinary, won't be the first time you can hear: "Don't trouble yourself with thinking, we'll do that for you".

Re: Castration anxiety

Not sure how scientific or well founded my remark is here, but thinking about it...

Might there be a gender specific difference here? If I look around or contemplate it, I've the idea that ladies in general wear their mobes in their back pocket (just like your (grand) daughters do), while gents seem to prefer the location Dabs described (either on vibrate or not). You know, just like gents dropping their trousers when sitting down on the loo, and ladies pulling up (if they wear skirts of course)...

I think it's about time for a completely unscientific Reg study here...

Hear hear. I realise and admit I've to be "overly tolerant" and kept using Skype because my "oh-scary-computer-with-buttons-I-should-push-to-do-something-because-trusted-US-company-Microsoft-told-me-so" US colleagues can't/ won't consider alternatives. Apart from the fact that it's a neutered version, not allowing users to "get their job done" in a way that did work decades ago. When this productivity tool then improved by disabling the possibility to converse with SfB users (but hey, my 90+ nan is on WhatsApp anyway) and biz rated cams stopped working, well...

For people unfamiliar with German Schufa: it's a credit check private company

Now, I'm pretty sure this is not a common question, or even data "average" Germans know the answer to, or for that matter, have access to. This kind of implies that the hosting company is pulling up all your financial details by default? For buying a TLD (e.g. an .de ≤ € 0.99*)? Maybe I'm an old, paranoid, asocial, "have nothing to share" fart but... WTF? Please tell me I'm wrong...

Re: We know what comes next...

FTFY

"European Data is bad. Very bad. But I'm a good guy. Great guy. So I've asked the good people of NSA to grab those bad Europeans by the pussy. because they're very bad! I'm sure that's a good deal for the US. The best deal any US president ever did!"

Haven't history shown something like this before? perople want to know...

BTW, does anybody know whatever happened to those plans to create alternatives to ICANN? I think I remember some EU and Chinese noises to do so, and the US set to keep "the internet" in its own hands because "it would break the internet(!)". TBH, it would be some kind of answer; US doing the (privacy) stuff they want for their subjects, and Europe (and ROW) applying their philosophy. You know, applying a territories laws to the region of influence and not beyond...

Ah well, looks like the Europeans will get compensation for those tariff experiments ☺

>>> [...] was stunned to find that it faced multi-million-dollar fines [...]

Re: Keyboard ecosystems

When still teaching medical students, one of the standard microbiology work shops was to teach them to do (agar) bacterial cultures, a thing that becomes handy when they ever have to do patient cultures (e.g. bronchitis, urinary infections). For the work shop that always translated to a "wipe test", basically the students going round, wiping surfaces, and putting those wipes on culture. And every year the winner was... keyboards. Always holding more bacteria (especially E. coli, for the non-medical people among us, the one that lives north of uranus) than toilet seats, or surprisingly, the inside door handle of the loo. So, I'm afraid a good shake is not going to cover it... Alcohol any one?

Re: How is it any better than running NoScript

People, people! Why all the noise about NoScript? If you don't like Giorgios labour of love, go for an alternative. I mean, for the tech savvy audience here, I expect an extended use of Gorhills uMatrix (with excellent UI) any way. Which not only would tackle facebook.com, but even facebook.*...

... which can be combined with a vast number of host files (e.g. Dan Pollock, Peter Lowe, EasyList) that could help you catching "all that other stuff"... if you want...

Re: I knew there was a reason

Don't know... Maybe I'm really old fashioned, but...

When we/ I used to hire people, we used their application to make a selection based on the material they sent us. I know. Silly us. If now, with these kind of things cover letters/ CVs become buzz word, impersonal, ironed smooth, middle-of-the-road spam, the only effective way of properly hiring people will be "improved" to "People, we're looking to fill this spot. Does anybody know anybody good? Got any knowledgable family members maybe? Know people from the pub? There is free beer for the golden tip!"

What I'm somewhat surprised about is that there is no consideration and/ or evaluation of the fact that Ghostery is the product of... <drum roll> Cliqz. Yep, that Cliqz. The one everybody was up in arms about when it started harvesting data from (German) Mozilla users.

And as far as I know it always has been a product of "an ad agency".

Doesn't that smell a bit like the butcher testing his own meat?

After all, as a product of an ad agency, it tries to "enhance the browsing experience" by gathering personal data, phoning it home, and sticking it a huge database... of an ad agency?

Re: Netbooks, sigh

Hear, hear... Have a still alive and kicking ZG5 here that just refuses to die. Opened its guts so many times, to pop in a SSD, or give it a "new" RAM, wifi, or USB port (did I mention it has 3? Plus 2 SD slots? And a headphone jack?!) from Fleebay. New battery? Sure, China seems to have loads for silly prices. Crap, left the charger in my hotel room. Have to shell out another £3 to get a new one...

And the ZG5 receives all humbly. And it just keeps running its up-to-date linux for as long as 32 bits will stay available. The missus loves it as her little Kodi box, and I just can't refuse it as a "let's do a quick dd if=/dev/zero 1st" option when (forced to) travel to dodgy destinations...

Re: Kindle, Kobo etc

@ Mage:

You're absolutely right (on many things actually, but particularly) on turning off wifi/ continuous air plane mode. Not so much on the tin foil hat issues perhaps (for me), but more on the general performance of the thing.

When my partner decided to get one, the Kobo (Touch, Fleabay for ~ £15) came loaded with the lastest version of the OS software, yes, presenting the UI in her native language, but also with LOADS of crap, showing her what she "missed out on". And (not) surprisingly, these ads refreshed frequently, slowing the thing down even more. Overcoming her anxiety, I convinced her to factory reset it and return to the original Kobo base OS. Which is brilliant! And 10.000.000 times better than the later, higher version crap! No ads! Works with Calibre! Fast! Responsive! Less power draining! More reading time! And you can activate/ use/ read books (oh dear!) without the obligatory "Not registered? Create a free account to start using your device"! (Catching breath after so much marketing excitement!)

So yes, I agree wholeheartedly. Whatever you do, don't turn the wifi on, and look into whether a factory reset gives you "a better reading experience"...

PS - Reading up on it, there are lots of folks out there who do very interesting things with their (old) eReaders (e.g. hackaday.com, koreader on github). Can even remember finding a guy who used it as his dash/ instrument panel for his ultralight! An application where crappy images can really help (help. Help! HELP!!!)

Are scientists smart enough..?

Am I being silly when I expect that scientists, you know, the ones that work at universities and stuff, who knows, might even have PhDs, in general are smart enough to fill in an IP address like 80.82.77.83 or 80.82.77.84 directly into their URL bar in stead of a web address? Dear me, maybe they're even smart enough to store it as a browser bookmark!

Re: Rolling back after 8 hours

I just had to reply to this: because I've had exactly the same experience here. Especially the new tab crap is intolerable, but not unsolvable. If you go for the New Tab Override addon, you can counter that behaviour. But...

It is rather FU of course if you have to apply an addon to make the thing do what you want. And go waste laods of time to go through the about:config and turn off loads of stuff. So let's roll back. Well... As far as I found, that might be a problem. Everywhere I look I only find the 57 version or the 45.0.2 version. Even Debian runs with the 57 or 52 ESR version? Why can I not just go back one step to what I had? I thought the coup was in Zimbabwe? Ah well...

Re: "When it's political, technology cannot do anything."

Kids, kids... As we all know this has nothing to do with tech, but all to do with the private jet trip of ol' Steve to Munich in 2003 (https://www.cnet.com/news/munich-breaks-with-windows-for-linux/) and the subsequent location of European MS HQ in Munich (https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-germany-moves-into-a-new-headquarters/).

Oh, you're confused by politicians who tell you that they work for your well being..?

Move on please, nothing (new) to see here... or you should be interested "the excuses they come up with this time" to explain themselves...

Re: Advancing our civilization into less a democratic state...

@ ShelLuser

>Because some of our politicians are already discussing the possibility to remove the right to petition for a referendum.

Indeed. I visited your country this week, and caught a rather remarkable quote on your local daily newsnight program (called News Uur?). There, one of the commentators stated, that there was only one country that first implemented the possibility to call for a referendum, and then later amputated its citizens rights by abolishing it.

Re: Illegal

I agree - I know that the "loud" people from the Land Of The Free™ always want "to share" the stipulations in their constitution. With that in mind it might be good if they then took also a look at the constitution of another country, like in this case Germany..?

Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany (Grundgesetz, GG)

http://germanlawarchive.iuscomp.org/?p=212

Just for fun, take a look at Article 10... O dear... Getting the popcorn...

Your view is a bit challenged geographically I'm afraid. Yes, for the US I agree with you. But for universities in the EU it is PCs most of the time due to budgetary reasons. And this is not just your admin or student-writing-thesis box, but also boxes connected to really savvy kit...

Isn't this what governments have been doing currently with respects to public transport use?

<quote>Only one-third of people who think they'd buy an autonomous vehicle</quote>

So why would I like to buy/ own the bus/ tube/ train/ taxi/ ferry/ plane (fill in as desired) I ride on with others, when I can use it for a "for-the-ride-only" fee?

Maybe I'm the misguided one, but this sounds like some warped society image, ignore human nature and behaviour, and carving out "an unique market space" for a new product without looking at the expectations and needs of the ones that are expected to pay. Or maybe it is just one of those tech developments that actually nobody has any use for? Then again, I can image those road trains being driverless. Then again, we do have freight trains. Need... coffee... now...